The “Gratitude Series” first saw daylight on this blog 10 years ago.

Recently I’ve been diving deeply back into the archives of this blog, and finding all kinds of interesting things – but they’re “antiques” from a contemporary point of view. Ten years ago, in 2015 we did havesmartphones. The iPhone had been introduced eight years earlier. But back then, bloggers knew that most people would be reading our posts on desktop computers with what we now consider slothlike modems.

In 2015 I didn’t know a lot about SEO, but I did know I needed to make my pictures small, so they’d load within my readers’ lifetime. I also was struggling to create the then-widely-understood minimum of three blog posts each week to have what the Web Search Gods would consider an “active” website. For me, that was a lot of writing, so I resorted to shortcuts.

Each Monday I posted a “Quote of the Week.” Each Wednesday I posted a more substantive article. Then, on Friday or Saturday, I’d post an “Image of Interest.” The Quote and the Image were rarely more than a picture and a few short comments. But I was publishing content regularly. The bots of that era (we called them “spiderbots”) could find me, because I seemed to be consistently active.

The Gratitude Season

As noted above, I first posted the illustrated quotes in the “Gratitude Series” in November, 2015. One “Quote of the Week” per week, they ran through the month (there were four Mondays in November that year, but I made the last one – the one above – an “image of interest.”). I called the month “the Gratitude Season,” because one day for a year’s worth of Thanksgiving has never seemed like nearly enough to me.

It may not have been my original series-starter, but it seems to me the best place, out of all the quotes, to begin. I’ve reformatted it (somewhat) for contemporary media. I worry that the smallest words are still too small and faint to read easily, but the overall message of the infographic is just as solid as it was back in 2015.

In a way that is remarkably similar to the power of forgiveness, gratitude can literally change one’s perspective. And as you might imagine, changing perspective can change the course of all subsequent decisions. The other “Gratitude Series” posts focus on important aspects of this.

Opportunities Open Up for the Grateful

The second quote from 2015 that I’m highlighting today is a case in point. I originally drew the quote-image that lies at the core of my re-envisioning above, from a post on Kerri Richardson’s Blog. Her essay is titled “Keep the Gratitude Going.” I encourage you to take a look at the original post. It’s still online and available eleven years later.

I think her point that gratitude opens the proper attitude to discover new opportunities is well in keeping with the study results quoted in the infographic that opened this post. I know it is good advice, because it has actually worked that way for me on multiple occasions.

Honest gratitude is a sure-fire “warm fuzzy” in a world that too often seems bereft of them. If you show genuine gratitude to someone, it’s only natural that they’re likelier to want to work with you. A gracious, grateful, cooperative attitude makes you a better team member – and as we know, these days work seems to be all about teamwork.

Gratitude Acts Kind of Like a Palindrome

If you want a reciprocal cycle, you can’t do much better than the gratitude-happiness dynamic. It’s one of those spiritual truths that doesn’t necessarily seem logical until one tries it. As it happens, however, gratitude not only powers a dynamic, it’s a dynamo in its own right. Opportunity, happiness, and more: the powers that gratitude makes possible are many.

The original teeny-tiny little quote-image I used in my 2015 “Gratitude Series” was published by the Ellensburg Christian School. The school still exists ten years later. However, they didn’t attribute the quote back then, and the original page I sourced has been taken down.

None of that diminishes the truth behind the words. Happiness all too often seems to be an elusive quality. Our culture has proved itself to be pretty bad at supporting it, despite that thing we Americans said a while back about a right to the pursuit of it.

Part of this difficulty is because happiness is a quality that’s always in motion. We all seem to agree that true happiness is something more sustainable than a fleeting endorphin hit. (Our culture does occasionally deliver those).

How does one sustain a feeling of happiness? However we define it, I think that gratitude must always be a key ingredient.

Gratitude is also Key to Contentment

The calmness and “quiet joy” of which Ralph H. Blum speaks in the illustrated quote above speak of a way of life marked by contentment. How does contentment line up with happiness? I think they’re two sides of the same coin.

A life of gratitude and contentment is not dominated by striving for greater acquisitions of money, power, or whatever else one desires. Striving seems driven by a perception that one doesn’t have enough (of whatever) to be grateful for. It is rarely compatible with calmness or quiet joy, and certainly not with contentment.

Not so, a life of gratitude. This “parent of all other [virtues]” (Cicero) may indeed open opportunities as noted above. But it is patient. It accepts what the striver may see as constraints and quietly says, “that’s enough. I have what I need for now.”

This is not to say that we must acquiesce to everything someone else wants to put on us. Gratitude sharpens our awareness of times when we are treated well by others. But it also provides a pretty good contrast by which we can measure situations that need to be corrected!

Gratitude is Foundational, but it’s Only Half of the Picture

Making the best of what one has is an essential approach, both for gratitude and for contentment. Understanding the real value of one’s advantages and comforts is important. When we are genuinely grateful for them, it softens our “hard edges,” and heightens our awareness that we are interdependent with others in our community.

I will not argue that whatever one’s lot in life, we should be grateful, and therefore not push for change, even if change is warranted. That is irresponsible. It makes a mockery of our gratitude, and turns it into either smug complacency or glum tolerance. Gratitude for what one has must be balanced with a sense of justice and responsibility.

Whatever our situation, however, gratitude sweetens our lives. As these thoughts from the “Gratitude Series” suggest, when we from a mindset primed for gratitude, it can make our lives a lot more pleasant.

About the Author

Jan S. Gephardt is the author of the science fiction mystery XK9 saga. These books, which include the XK9 “Bones” Trilogy, tell stories of a pack of uplifted police dogs who live on a space station and solve crimes (among other things). Her most recent novel in the series is Bone of Contention. She’s now hard at work on the next volume, Bones for the Children. She also is the Chief Cat-Herder and Art Director for Weird Sisters Publishing, and a creator of fine art paper sculpture.

IMAGE CREDITS

Many thanks to the originators of these quote images – even those that don’t appear to exist anymore. The “Benefits of Gratitude” infographic is a case in point. At the bottom of the image it says, “Graphic provided by www.goldeneaglescoching.com” (sic). Unfortunately, Golden Eagles Coaching no longer appears to have a website (even when I add the “a”). All the same, I’m grateful for this image.

I deeply appreciate Kerri Richardson’s blog post “Keep the Gratitude Going,” both for the wisdom in that essay and for the central quote-image in the second design. The third quote-image above is based on one I shared in 2015, but the original picture I used back then, from the Ellensburg Christian School, was not only tiny, it was blandly utilitarian. The current design is my own, for well or ill.

The fourth image is from the studio of Mary Engelbreit, a designer who was enjoying a “moment” in 2015. She’s still designing new work, which you can enjoy on her site. The “Quiet Joy” quote from Ralph H. Blum was originally published by American Greetings, but they’ve discontinued that card (and the page it was on). Design for the final quote-image at the core of a larger design by me, is by MARKANDANGEL.COM. They still have a website, but I was unable to find the exact quote on their site anymore.

Many thanks to all of my sources! My heart is full of gratitude.